World Renewal International

"I've got it! I've got it!" the baseball outfielder shouts to the rest of his team indicating that he feels he can catch the fly ball heading his way. "I will catch and possess the ball for our team. You can count on me. I've got it!"

In Dr. Dennis Kinlaw's daily devotional This Day With The Master on February 11 he asks the question "Does God's presence fill your life?" Kinlaw points to last night of Jesus' life before the cross. Jesus is praying for his disciples in John 17:17 asking God the Father to make the disciples holy. He knows the coming hours, days, weeks and months will be the most critical of their lives. He wants them ready. He wants them prepared. The disciples seemed to often feel like, "I've got it!" However, Jesus knows who and what they are and their need. Therefore He prays, "Make them pure and holy by teaching them your words of truth. As you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. I give myself entirley to you so they also might be entirely yours..I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me." NLT When it came to the "sending them into the world" he would warn them with these last instructions, "Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you what he promised...you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." Acts 1:4 NLT
Kinlaw points at the connection between being "pure and holy" with the "give myself entirley to you." He says, "When God puts His holiness into a human heart, it does not become a human possession." He says that when we give up ourselves to God "entirely" that giving allows the "Holy One to come and dwell in us so that we begin to look like Him." However, it seems that this "dwelling" is dependant on whether or not we have given ourselves entirely to Him. He possesses us, we do not possess Him.

We humans seem so capable of taking something that seems rather simple and messing it up. The liberal theologians view on the Holy Spirit seems to be "Well, we all have the Spirit....don't we?" The Calvinist defends, "I recieved the Holy Spirit at salvation. I am fine. I've got it. Don't tell me I need more!" So often the Wesley-Arminian position seems to say, "I now have the Holy Spirit. I've got it now. I now have all that I need." The Charismatic seems to often say, "I've got the Holy Spirit and I have the spiritual gifts to prove it!" We all seem to be saying, "I've got the Spirit!" However the key to the spirit-filled life and having and maintaining his "presence" in our life seems beg the question, "Do we have Him or does He have us?

When Jesus prays, "I give myself entirely to you," he seems to be saying, "Father, you've got me! I'm yours entirely!" Kinlaw is saying that this is the only state at which "enables that person to share God's holy character." Now, I don't know about you, but I all for sharing. Do I have the Spirit or does He have me? Do you have the Spirit or does He have you?
Thanks for stopping by.

I have explained that in January and February I canceled my trips and stayed home to get well from my Christmas pneumonia and also my poor state of physical, mental and spiritual being. Thanks to the Lord, it has worked and do I ever feel blessed. I have been busy teaching a local Bible study in January and February at Brandywine Community Church on Wednesday nights. I am teaching the Book of Genesis. I have learned much as I have never just taught on this book before. I have continued preaching on Sundays and doing the administrative work of World Renewal which has been a blessing.

I know many of you pray for me and my health on a consistant basis. I want you to know I am seriously working on my physical well being. As soon as the respitory problems lifted a bit in the first week of Janurary I began a serious diet and exercise program. That has continued through to this very day. Last year I enjoyed a Lent Fast of no solid foods, only liquids. Because I have Type II diebetes I have to maintain a certain level of intake on several ingredients. Last year my doctor was thrilled. I lost weight and had great sugar levels. However, I did not develop a vigorous exercise program before I started the fast and while I did excise 2-3 times a week, it was not what I could have done if I had already been in a good exercise plan. I broke the fast on Easter Sunday during communion. I had so enjoyed the giving of this fast to the Lord Jesus. I really did not want it to end. I wept that day because it was over. I struggled after that with the diet of what I should do. My doctored suggested just low carb. I did not do well and by the end of the year was overworked, exhausted and seriously out of shape.

I love the quote from the cartoon Pogo by Walt Kelly. Pogo is looking in a mirror. He is so shocked his hair stands straight up and his hat blows off and his body is propelled back. The caption reads, "We have met the enemy and He is us." For 56 years now my greatest challenge is the man I look at in the mirror and see each morning. Paul wrote "Oh what a misrable person I am! Who can save me from this life that is dominated by sin?" I sure wish I did not know what Paul was talking about don't you? I so need what he said next, "Thank God, the answer is Jesus Christ my Lord!" In chapter 8 that follows this confession he explains much about the Spirit filled life and walking in the Spirit. Well, that sure make me feel better! Now to the application of it.

Some thoughts I have had about "walking with God." I have kind of become fascinated by the phrase in scripture. It often appears. My friend Dr. Robin Johnston, Barclay College, once used Micah 6:8 as a reminder of what God required of him for a whole year. He tried to read it each day I think. I like the name Micah, Carol and I named our first child Micah. It means "Like unto Jehovah." I am glad my son wants to live up to that name. The Micah passage reads, "And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."

In my study of Genesis I noticed that God would come and walk with Adam and Eve. "Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day." Genesis 3:8 So in the evenings, the cool of the day, they walked. Thats may favorite time of the day. My wife is always scolding me for staying out too late on the lawn mower in the dark of evening. I just like being out there that time of night. I am almost always think He is riding with me. We have done a lot talking on that lawn mower. Its just another form of "Walking with Him," as far as I know.

I noticed in my studies of Genesis that Enoch and God walked together. It says that Enoch did not become a father until he was 65 years old. It was then that he had Methuselah. I am not sure what happened but when he had his first kid he apprently changed his lifestyle and started walking with God. It takes shocks like that for some of us men before we realize how much we need Jesus. It says that he then walked with God for 300 years! I hope he was wearing those comfortable New Balance shoes we seniors seem to feel we need. What is amazing about this old dude is that more is said about him in the New Testament than the old. He is listed in the lineage of the Lord Jesus by Dr. Luke and then included in the Faith Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11:5. It says that Enoch did not suffer death, that "God had taken him away." That echoes the Genesis passage that simply says, "Enoch walked with God; then was no more, because God took him away." I guess after 300 years of walking together you get pretty close. I really don't have anyone else to reference that. However, it seems to me that one day God and Enoch had been out walking together and it came time for Enoch to go home. The conversation must have gone something like this with God saying, "You know, I really don't want you to go home tonight. We are closer to my house now than yours. Why don't you just come over to my place?" The Hebrews passage says that from then on Enoch "could not be found."

I really like thinking about that. Walking with God. Nevertheless, I don't walk very good anymore. But today, when I was doing my exercise, I realized that He and I were doing the same kind of stuff that the guys in the Bible did when they "walked with God" except I was swimming. I swim on my back and stare at the top of pool's ceiling and talk to Him. I got so caught up talking to Him today that I swam for 45 minutes without stopping! I had never done that before although He has helped me work up to it. Each day as I endeavor to get my body into submission I hope he comes in the "cool of the pool." I think He is saying, "Hey Gary! Let's go for a swim!" God...I love Him! Don't you? Thanks for stopping by.